AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
- Sen. Rick Scott slammed Marjorie Taylor Greene spreading conspiracies about the Parkland shooting.
- Greene endorsed the conspiracy that the shooting was a false flag operation in Facebook posts.
- Scott, who was governor of Florida at the time, called her comments “wrong” and “disgusting.”
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida sharply criticized Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for spreading conspiracy theories that the Parkland school shooting was a false flag or planned hoax on Wednesday.
“It’s not what the Republican Party stands for,” Scott told the Washington Post’s Paul Kane about Taylor Greene, according to the Capitol Hill press pool.
“I was the governor of Florida when Parkland happened. And what she said about Parkland is wrong, disgusting. I was there an hour, just a few hours after it happened, I talked to the families that lost their loved ones. And so, but she’s not gonna be the face of the party. And it’s wrong, what she said,” Scott said.
Scott, who was recently named chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, further told Kane that Republican Senate candidates in 2022 will focus their messaging on taxes and getting the US’ national debt under control.
Greene is facing criticism from both sides of the aisle after reports from CNN and Media Matters revealed disturbing social media postings from before Greene was elected to Congress in which she suggested that several mass shootings were hoaxes and expressed support for executing top Democrats.
Several months after the shooting, Greene posted an article to Facebook about former Broward County sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson getting a pension.
In a now-deleted comment, she replied "exactly!!" to a comment stating that Peterson's pension was "a pay off to keep his mouth shut since it was a false flag planned shooting."
In another comment that has since been deleted, Greene replied: "my thoughts exactly!! Paid to do what he did and keep his mouth shut" in response to a comment referring to the pension as a "kick back for going along the evil plan."
In a separate Facebook post, Green wrote, "I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that 'we need another school shooting' in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control."
Recently-resurfaced video footage from March 2019 showed Greene harassing Parkland survivor and gun-reform activist David Hogg at the Capitol.
Just one month into her first term, the House Rules Committee is set to take a vote on whether to strip Greene of her assignment on the House Education and Labor Committee, with Democrats weighing other actions like censuring or bringing forth a resolution to expel Greene.